Philippines celebrate as jaw-dropping free kick lights up group stage finale

Source : ABC NEWS

On a night that featured two high-stakes games played simultaneously on opposite sides of the country, it was a team that spent the evening huddled nervously around the television that ended it with the most to celebrate.

With Vietnam falling to a 4-0 defeat to a rampant Japan, the Philippines qualified for the Asian Cup knockout stages as the second-best third-placed side, booking a quarterfinal clash with Japan in the process.

But it was an incident-packed night in both Sydney and Perth, as Japan underlined its status as the continent’s team to beat, concussion protocols were once again called into question, and India’s Manisha Kalyan lit up Parramatta with what will surely be the goal of the tournament.

But first, a little context

With Japan already qualified for the quarterfinals as runaway Group C leaders, all the drama leading into the final evening of group-stage matches was destined to centre on the battle for the two remaining quarterfinal berths.

Being a 12-team tournament, the top two sides in each of the three four-team groups, as well as the two best third-placed finishers, would advance to the knockout stages.

Uzbekistan, courtesy of a 4-0 win over Bangladesh on Monday, had already secured its spot as one of the third-placed teams to progress. The Uzbeks and the Philippines, who finished their group stage on Sunday, shared an identical points tally and goal difference, but the Central Asian side was the first to qualify because it scored more tournament goals. 

So, the Philippines, who had gathered at their hotel to watch the matches as a group, were in for a very nervous evening as India and Chinese Taipei faced off at Western Sydney Stadium and Vietnam and Japan locked horns in Perth.

To belatedly secure progression, the Filipinas needed India, coming off an 11-0 loss to Japan, to pull off a sensational upset against Chinese Taipei or Japan to beat Vietnam by more than two goals.

Got it? Good.

Manisha’s outrageous strike

India began its third match of the tournament still stinging from that demoralising loss to Japan.

And with nothing left to play for but pride against Chinese Taipei, there was a worry that things could get ugly once more.

But the Indians were adventurous and admirable at Western Sydney Stadium, and despite going down within 20 minutes, were a constant threat on the counterattack, with rangy winger Xaxa Piyari time and again proving too hot for a retreating Taiwanese backline.

However, it was the similarly excellent Manisha that provided one of the moments of the tournament to date.

Manisha’s footballing idol is Cristiano Ronaldo, and you could certainly see shades of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner in the forward’s tenacity, power and technique at Western Sydney Stadium.

Gifted a free-kick 35 metres from goal courtesy of a blatant off-the-ball shove, Manisha stood over the dead ball, shorts pulled up in a way reminiscent of her hero, with a gaze every bit as steely.

And it was the sweetest, most superlative of left-footed strikes from the Indian centre-forward, the ball cannoning from her laces, hardly turning in the air, striking the underside of the crossbar and bouncing over the line.

Head knock protocols called into question

Chinese Taipei was challenged for large patches of the evening, but proved too strong in the end, claiming a 3-1 victory that earned it second spot in Group C and set up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash with China on Saturday.

For India, Manisha’s stunning strike aside, it was an evening of considerable misfortune, especially for goalkeeper Elangbam Panthoi Chanu, who took two sickening blows to the head and scored an own goal.

The first knock came in the shadows of half-time, when she came out to smother a shot and copped a ball to the face from point-blank range.

In a tournament not short of ball-to-face incidents, this was surely the most worrying, with the shot stopper going down straight away and appearing to come close to losing consciousness.

After a prolonged pause and what must have been a successful concussion test, she was deemed right to continue. 

Only moments later, insult was well and truly added to injury when Chinese Taipei was awarded a penalty for a handball in the box. 

Chanu dived low to the right, the spot kick slammed against the post, and the ball rebounded off her shoulder and over the line. It was some reward for guessing correctly.

And as the game drew towards its conclusion, Chanu once again rushed out to a Taiwanese attacker, and this time it wasn’t the ball that took her out, but the knee of teammate Nganbam Sweety Devi.

It was a truly awful collision and one that led to both players being stretchered off the field, with Chanu’s cheekbone double the size it was at the start of the game.

It was an incident that once again raised questions about how head knocks are being treated at this tournament, with Australia’s Hayley Raso and Steph Catley both already having succumbed to head injuries.

Speaking after Chanu’s second knock, former player Andy Harper was flabbergasted that she had been allowed to continue after the initial injury.

“The game has got to do better, I’m sorry, the game has got to do way better,” Harper said on commentary for Paramount Plus.

Vietnam falls short

It was always going to be a big ask for Vietnam in Perth.

Playing against the best team in the tournament, they reached half-time just one goal down and halfway to a quarterfinal berth.

When Japan went 2-0 up early in the second half, Vietnam sank level with the Philippines in every tie-breaking metric.

Both sides were on three points, had a -2 goal difference, had conceded four goals, had scored two goals and had received two yellow cards.

But just as sports journalists across Asia began scrambling to uncover exactly what uncharted territory we were moving into, Japan scored again.

The Japanese ended the game 4-0 winners and head into the knockout rounds with the continent at their feet.

The Philippines profits from a lopsided structure

So, the Philippines progressed as the second-best third-placed team, despite finishing their group stage on Sunday night.

It’s hardly the most intuitive concept for the casual fan to wrap their head around.

The lopsided nature of a 12-team tournament can certainly feel convoluted at times, and, as we’ve seen this year, it tends to throw up its fair share of uninspiring group stage fixtures, with the jeopardy only really kicking in when the two highest-seeded and two lowest-seeded teams in each group face off on match-day three.

The big five of Japan, Australia, North Korea, South Korea and China were largely happy to play out routine victories against the smaller teams, which were set up to keep their goal differences as close to zero as possible heading into the final round of matches.

The only team this dynamic really didn’t serve was Vietnam.

Ranked sixth in Asia, the Vietnamese proved closer in quality to the tournament’s bottom six teams than to its top five.

But due to seeding, it was forced to play Japan on the final match day, all but scuppering its chances of making a final charge for third-placed progression after losing to Chinese Taipei earlier in the campaign.

It’s a tournament structure that exacerbates the gaping chasm between the haves and have-nots of women’s football in Asia, while also being in place to account for it, allowing for the competition to expand beyond the continent’s traditional heavyweights.

And it is a structure that will continue to evolve — but only at the pace of the development of the women’s game across the continent.

ABC Sport will continue its coverage of the tournament with a live blog and radio call of the first quarterfinal between Australia and North Korea on Friday.